November 2014 Income At-A-Glance
Gross Income for November: $307,504.50
Total Expenses for November: $88,883
Total Net Profit for November: $218,621.50
Difference b/t Nov & Oct: + $35,701.56
Why We Publish An Income Report
This monthly income report is created for you, Fire Nation. By documenting the struggles we encounter and the successes we celebrate as business owners every single month, we’re able to provide you with a single resource that tells you what’s working, what’s not and what’s possible.
There’s a lot of hard work that goes into learning and growing as an entrepreneur (especially when you’re starting at ground zero), but the most important part of the equation is what you’re able to pass on to others through teaching. We’re passionate about helping you build the life YOU want to live, just like we have.
Now that may look very different from ours, but the lessons learned and techniques for running a successful business can be applied in many situations.
As you read through our day-to-day struggles and successes that help define our journey, focus on the lessons we’ve learned from these experiences. Our goal is to make YOUR journey as enjoyable and successful as possible.
That’s not to say you won’t encounter roadblocks. Believe us – we know that no one can escape those no matter how much reading or studying you do. Just keep in mind that every roadblock is a stepping stone towards your future success.
Let’s IGNITE!
**We’ll receive a commission on the affiliate links below. If you click on my affiliate link and sign up for the products and services I trust and recommend, then I will earn a commission.
CPA On Fire
Our CPA, Josh Baurle, shares his November Income Report Tip!
What’s up Fire Nation? My name is Josh Bauerle, and I am a CPA and the Founder of CPA On Fire, where we specialize in working with entrepreneurs to minimize their tax liability while keeping them in line with the ever changing tax laws.
I’ve been working with EntrepreneurOnFire to make sure their accounting systems are running smoothly and that their taxes are as low as possible. John and Kate have included me in the monthly income reports with unlimited access to all their accounts so I can verify that what they report here is complete and accurate.
And because they believe in delivering an insane amount of value, my job doesn’t stop at the verification level. I will also be providing tax and accounting tips to you along the way!
Well Fire Nation, we made it. We are at the end of our five part series on tax saving tips for entrepreneurs!
We’ve given you four great tax tips over the last four months, and if you’ve implemented any one of them, then your wallet is going to thank you come tax time. And guess what? I’ve saved the best tip for last. If you follow this one piece of advice, then you’ll save more time, more money AND give yourself more financial peace of mind than all other tax tips combined!
Our fifth and final tax tip for entrepreneurs in this series is to hire a qualified tax professional.
Did you know the average business owner attempting to file their own taxes spends over 23 hours on the task and still leaves significant money on the table? And that’s just doing the most basic tax task: filing your extra return.
When you factor in tax planning, compliance and the overall strategy, the hours and dollars wasted become even more significant. Preventing this loss of time and money is as simple as hiring a qualified professional to take the burden off your hands.
What should you look for in a tax professional?
Here are three qualities all entrepreneurs should look for when hiring a qualified tax professional:
1. Certification
The tax prep world isn’t as regulated as you probably think it is. Almost anyone can call themselves a tax professional and take your money for preparing your return.
The best way to protect yourself from unqualified tax pros is to seek out one with some type of certification, preferably a CPA. A CPA designation isn’t a fool proof guarantee of quality, but it does prove they have the education, experience and ethics necessary to do the job.
2. Choose the right size firm
If you’re a large corporation, then you should be using a large CPA firm. They have the employees and resources required to do big jobs. But if you’re like most of us with 0-3 employees, then you should be looking for a firm that can give you the personal attention you need.
Bigger doesn’t always equal better here, and I strongly believe the size of the CPA firm you work with should be roughly equal to the size of your own business.
3. Their level of aggressiveness should line up with yours
There isn’t much about the tax code that is black and white; instead, it’s filled with a lot of gray area. Because of this, different CPA’s interpret parts of the code in different ways. Some are very aggressive, preferring to err on the side of paying as little in taxes as possible, while others are less aggressive, wanting to ensure that their clients will almost never be subject to an audit.
Determine where you lie on that scale, and then find a CPA who’s level of aggressiveness is in line with where you want to be.
If you own a business and you haven’t hired a qualified tax professional yet, it’s time to save yourself significant time and money and do so now. Use these three qualities as a guide in hiring the right tax pro for you and your business, and you’ll be good to go!
As always, please feel free to contact me if you’d like to discuss what would be best for YOUR business. I LOVE chatting with Fire Nation!
What Went Down In November
A mastermind getaway
We don’t just talk the talk here at EntrepreneurOnFire, we walk it, too!
You’ve probably heard us talk about the importance of a mastermind hundreds of times, and to prove just how integral we believe they are to your success as an entrepreneur not only when you’re just starting out, but throughout your journey, we wanted to give you a peek inside of the masterminds that John and I are both a part of outside of Fire Nation Elite.
A peek inside John’s mastermind
Every week John meets with his mastermind crew via Google hangouts, and they’ve been meeting this way for about a year now. The crew consists of 3: John, Rick and Greg.
During their chats, they take turns being on the “hot seat”, where one of them shares a current struggle or major project they’re working on right now. Then, they ask for feedback from the other two, which might come back to them by way of a recommendation or a full-on suggested pivot.
What’s cool about John’s mastermind is they’ve implemented “quarterly getaways”, where they choose an independent location to meet up for a long weekend of business-focused masterminding. They’ve also decided that for each of their quarterly getaways, they’ll select 1 “guest” to join them, which is a great way to bring new perspectives into the group.
In November, John, Rick and Greg invited Jeremy of Internet Business Mastery to join them in San Francisco, and the entire weekend was a big hit. They scored a great house to stay in on Air BnB and even had the pleasure of hosting a surprise guest for one afternoon…an Entrepreneur who goes by the name of Tim Ferriss!
Okay, so as you can see they have a little bit of fun, too :) The guys spent one afternoon checking out Alcatraz Island, and an evening with some local entrepreneurs at the pad.
We’ll do a peek inside my mastermind next month!
Free Podcast Course
Remember last month how we talked about the struggles and failures we encountered on our journey to creating Podcasters’ Paradise, and also about the huge successes we’ve seen since our launch? Well when we said we were going to double down on what’s working for us right now, we meant it.
During the month of November John was hard at work building what just went live in late November: Free Podcast Course.
What is the Free Podcast Course?
Free Podcast Course is a 15-day email series that walks you through each step of creating and launching your podcast, and each email comes with its own video tutorial. After John covers everything you need to know about creating and launching your podcast, he identifies the struggles and setbacks that hold most Podcasters back. Finally, towards the end of the Free Podcast Course, John shares the top 5 ways to grow your podcast and the top 5 ways to monetize your Podcast.
Sound interesting? All you have to do is opt in, and you’re off to the races!
Why we created Free Podcast Course
We created Free Podcast Course to double down on what’s working in our business right now: Podcasters’ Paradise. Free Podcast Course will certainly help anyone who wants to invest the time in creating, growing and monetizing a podcast on their own; however, our hope is that it will encourage those who go through it to see not only the power behind podcasting, but also the power behind Podcasters’ Paradise.
Free Podcast Course
In addition, John has also been working hard to create a 20-episode podcast to accompany the Free Podcast Course email series, which he released on December 4th. Sticking to the email series branding, we named it Free Podcast Course Podcast.
We’re excited to be delivering content in this manner for a number of reasons:
- It’s evergreen, so we can point people to this free Podcast anytime and update the content easily if necessary.
- It leverages the power of the directories, like Apple Podcasts. When people search for a Podcast course, this will be a free option at their fingertips.
- It allows us to offer multiple calls to action to our other free and paid products.
Fire Nation, this is the power of leveraging multiple mediums at its finest!
Copying Netflix’s blast release (does anyone else love Orange is the New Black?) all 20 episodes are ready for you right now, and we’d love for you to subscribe and have a listen if you’re interested in Podcasting!
The Fire Path IGNITES!
It’s been in the works for quite some time, but it’s finally coming to fruition!
I’ve now been working on The Fire Path for an entire year, which goes to show that nothing is created overnight. It was exactly one year ago when I launched The Fire Path Campaign, a 16-email series that walks through the core basics of starting and growing your own business.
One year later, I’ve not only read each of the chapters on my Podcast, Kate’s Take, but I’ve just published The Fire Path: Where your passion and our guidance unite! on Amazon – literally a dream come true for me as someone who has wanted to publish a book for nearly 10 years now.
What’s even more exciting is that our next step with The Fire Path will be creating a course by the same name.
Who is The Fire Path Course for?
Everything you create in the online space should be for one specific person…your PERFECT avatar. The Fire Path Course is for my avatar, Jackie, who recently decided that she’s ready to take her entrepreneurial leap.
She’s been studying up on those she follows in the entrepreneurial and online space (following their blogs, subscribing to their newsletters) for tips and advice to get started, and she gets plenty of inspiration and motivation from the podcasts she listens to daily.
Only trouble is, she’s overwhelmed by the thought of starting because she’s frankly not sure where to actually start. It just seems like too much at one time.
As a result, Jackie is currently on a path that will result in her skipping some of the core components of creating and growing a successful and sustainable business, like identifying her passion and zone of genius, defining her avatar, discovering her niche, and building great relationships right from the very beginning.
When Jackie finds out about The Fire Path, she immediately knows it’s right for her: she needs a step by step plan that will walk her through those core components that she not only doesn’t know much about right now, but that she would have ended up skipping altogether had she not joined us on The Fire Path.
Photo shoot w/ Matt Bouvet
Several months ago I was at Starbucks here in Pacific Beach buying a Grande Latte and getting ready to start a little work session. I took out my credit card and handed it to the guy who was helping me.
He looked at me and said “EntrepreneurOnFire?”… with a slight laugh thrown in there.
Due to his laugh, I figured he thought I was trying to be clever (calling myself an entrepreneur who was on fire or something like that).
But when I didn’t respond with much other than a smile and an awkward laugh back, he looked at me and said, “No, seriously, do you work for this company?”
That sparked up what you can imagine was a great convo. Turns out Matt’s best friend is an avid fan and follower of EntrepreneurOnFire, and had been trying to get Matt to listen in to EOF as a daily habit, (which he had just recently started doing).
Fast forward post our chat on opposite sides of the Starbucks counter and a few days later we received an email from Matt recounting our funny run-in at Starbucks, and also introducing himself as a photographer.
Add a few months to that and Matt was at our apartment in Pacific Beach ready for our 3 hour (turned 7 hour) photo shoot that followed.
We’ve got lots of goodies to put up on the site and leverage in our marketing and communications, so we’ll save those for later. But just to give you an idea of the fun we had together…
It just goes to show, you never know who you might meet. :)
If you want to check out all the amazing work Matt has done, or learn more about his business, you can check out his site here.
RescueTime summary
RescueTime is an incredibly powerful tool for anyone looking to manage their time more efficiently. In fact, John and I both attribute a huge chunk of our time management and efficiency skills to the RescueTime App itself. Honing these skills starts with fully recognizing what it is you’re spending your time on, and most people don’t take the time to track this because it’s difficult to write down every single thing you do in a day.
With RescueTime, you have software constantly working behind the scenes to log your time for you. Simply, easy and so powerful!
Kate’s November: 207.30 hours (vs. 240 in November)
Kate’s top 3 sites for the month:
1. Infusionsoft
2. EntrepreneurOnFire.com
3. Microsoft Word
John’s November: 211 hours: 7-hour work days (vs. 242 in November)
John’s top 3 sites for the month:
1. Gmail
2. Adobe Audition
3. Keynote
Our team
We also can’t forget about all the hard work and time that our virtual team members contribute! We couldn’t be doing what we’re doing without the help of JM, Jess and Adeel, our team!
This month we want to give a special shout out to JM
During the month of November, JM not only celebrated two and half years with the EntrepreneurOnFire team, but she also helped us take our social media strategy to the next level by researching and learning a new social sharing platform: MeetEdgar.
Thank you, JM, for all of your hard work and the passion you contribute to the EOFire team!
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November 2014 Income Breakdown
Product/Service Income: $287,334.50
Podcasters’ Paradise: $212,548.50 (invoice total)
Create, grow, and monetize YOUR Podcast.
WebinarOnFire: $6,427 (invoice total)
Create and present a Webinar that converts.
PodcastOnFire: $397 (invoice total)
Create and launch your Podcast in 14 days.
The One Thing: $63
$7 mini training.
Coaching: $1,000 (email me for an introduction to a mentor for overall online business or a Podcast focused mentor!)
Sponsorship Income: $55,000
Fire Nation Elite Mastermind: $11,669
Podcast Launch (Audiobook on Audible): $149
Podcast Launch (eBook on Amazon): $81
Affiliate Income: $20,170
*Affiliate links below – if you click on my affiliate link and sign up for the products and services I trust and recommend, then I will earn a commission.
- BlueHost: $3,600 Step-by-step guide and 23 WordPress tutorials included! Disclaimer: This is my affiliate link and I will receive a commission if you sign up through my link
- LeadPages: $1,825
- Tim Paige Voice Over: $430 (ask for the Fire Special)
- Audible: $1,560
- Aweber: $0
- Amber Ludwig-Vilhauer: $170
- Infusionsoft: $139
- Music Radio Creative: $52
- LifeOnFire: $1,558
- Business Podcasters Summit: $766
- Libsyn: $497 (promo code Fire)
- Amy Porterfield: $2,970
- Mike Koenigs: $0
- Jeff Brown: $2,379
- Optimize Press: $176
- WP Curve: $0
- Fizzle: $0
- Optin Monster: $0
- Virtual Staff Finder: $94
- Social Media Marketing World: $1,093
- Amazon: $804
- Other: $2,057
Total Gross Income in November: $307,504.50
Business Expenses: $86,739
- Advertising: $1,643
- Design & Branding: $465
- Education: $7,041 (John hired a mentor)
- Meals & Entertainment: $708
- Merchant Account fees: $450
- Libsyn: $176
- Other Business Expenses: $840
- Office expenses: $502
- Paradise Refunds: $49,823 (invoice total)
- WebinarOnFire Refunds: $1,957 (invoice total)
- PodcastOnFire Refunds: $0
- Webinar Giveaways: $200
- Fire Nation Elite expenses: $5,834
- Paradise expenses: $2,238 (SendOutCards)
- Paradise Affiliate Commissions: $3,187
- Software: $435
- TheMidRoll (Sponsorships): $9,166
- Total Launch Package Fees: $125
- Travel: $191
- Virtual Assistant Fees: $1,693
- Website Fees: $65
Recurring, Subscription-based Expenses: $2,144
- Adobe Creative Cloud*: $100
- Authorize.net*: $91.10
- Cell Phone*: $243
- Internet*: $171
- eVoice*: $9.95
- Infusionsoft CRM*: $787
- Insurance*: $551
- Quickbooks Online*: $25
- Chatroll: $49
- ScheduleOnce*: $42.19
- Skype*: $2.99
- Taxes & Licenses (recurring): $72
Total Expenses in November: $88,883
Payroll to John and Kate: $13,193
In our May Income Report, Josh focused on how to pay yourself as an entrepreneur. Check it out!
Total Net Profit for November 2014: $218,621.50
Can you believe this all came from the launch of a single Podcast?!
If you’re looking to start your own podcast, don’t miss our Podcast Workshop that we’re hosting next week on how YOU can create, grow, and monetize YOUR Podcast. Yes! Sign me up for the Podcast Workshop!
Here’s what our attendees are saying about the Podcast Workshop:
Rob: “This was a smart hour to set aside!”
Dave: “This is perfect for me! John is laying out exactly what I am working towards!”
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Lesson Learned In November
Joint ventures can do big things for your business
I know several people who are super skeptical about joint ventures: They aren’t interested in teaming up with others in their industry or niche, or even with those who may not necessarily be in their particular niche, but who have audiences that could benefit from what they have to offer.
Going at it alone is tough – and that goes for ANY situation you’ll find yourself in as an entrepreneur.
You’ll notice we hit an all-time high for both gross and net income this month, and while you can probably conclude that it was due to the fact that we also hit an all-time high for our Podcasters’ Paradise invoice total sales, what we haven’t talked about anywhere in this income report yet is exactly how we did it.
We did it with joint ventures
In the month of November alone, we did a combined 6 Podcast Workshops, two of which were for someone else’s audience. Because of the relationships John has built throughout his entrepreneurial journey, he receives opportunities like the two he did in November, where others’ in our industry reached out and asked him to present to their own community about Podcasting.
But keep in mind: these relationships weren’t built overnight, and neither was John’s credibility – or Podcasters’ Paradise for that matter. Getting to a point in your business where you’ve not only built up solid relationships with leaders in your industry or niche, but to where you’ve also established strong credibility yourself AND have created a product or service that has been proven takes a lot of hard work and time.
So next time you have the opportunity to check out a conference, an in-person meet up, a mixer, or even just meet someone new in your industry or niche online, don’t take that opportunity for granted. You never know where the relationships you’re building today might lead you in the future.
We just can’t get enough of this quote from Zig Ziglar: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
Not only were these two joint venture Webinars with past EntrepreneurOnFire guests, they were also with two guys who John has reached out to in order to provide his help to in the past. And because we strongly believe in what Paradise has to offer anyone out there who is looking to create, grow and monetize their own podcast, these joint ventures were a win/win/win/win.
That’s a win for…
- Everyone who attended the Webinar, because they got free, valuable content;
- Everyone who joined Paradise, because now they have a community filled with like-minded podcasters AND everything they’ll need to create, grow and monetize their own podcast;
- My JV partner, because they’ve just provided value to their audience AND earned themselves some hefty commissions as a result;
- Me, because I got to do what I love doing most: sharing the knowledge that I have with others so they can take it and leverage it on their own journey to creating the life they want to live (and in the process, I’ve earned a lot of money doing so).
Your turn! What’s your #1 takeaway from this month’s income report?
Alright Fire Nation, that’s a wrap!
Until next month, keep your FIRE burning!
~ Kate & John
PS: Click to Tweet… we’ll love you for it!
Note: we report our income figures as accurately as possible, but in using reports from Infusionsoft to track our product income, they suggest the possibility of a 3 – 5% margin of error.
